Ethical Issues on End of Life Decisions

The article indicates that technological advancement in the care of critical conditions just like in elderly patients under advanced care, patients, physicians, and families are likely to be confronted by the fact that the medical advances may serve to make life longer while the patient suffers instead of healing and recovery. The author points out the philosophical debate existing among practitioners over the wrongness or rightness of certain actions such as euthanasia and physician-assisted death. The author suggests that appropriate palliative attention could be an answer to the ethical dilemmas. He suggests that the aim of clinical ethics is to improve care quality by staying committed to the wellbeing of the patient. Also, attention should be paid to the four principals of medical ethics, beneficence, no malfeasance, justice, and autonomy (Daher, 2013) The solution to the problem as suggested in the article is that withdrawing or withholding treatments that are not helpful anymore or administration of opioids to relieve pain that may hasten death indirectly are not euthanasia.

I believe suffering and endurance of severe pain is much worse when compared to the intentional ending of a patient’s life. However, physicians should be able to confirm that there are no chances of the patient getting better except for continuous pain. In that case, there would be no need of prolonging the suffering but to let the patient die. However, I also believe that legal considerations such as consulting the patient’s family members should help sort out any conflict that may erupt between the family members and the staff (Ward, 2009). Such consultations are appropriate in cases where a patient is not in a capacity to make decisions on his own. org/10. 1093/annonc/mdt262 Ward, R. End-of-Life Legal Considerations.